Jackie Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I know the end of the school year is months away, but I'm a planner. DD is 5 years old, will turn six in May. Right around her fifth birthday, I gave her the DORA because I really wasn't at all sure where she fell for language arts and I wanted that information as I was choosing what to work on for the coming year. I note that she really enjoyed taking the test and has asked regularly when she can have another test, so this isn't some form of torture for her. I know virtually nothing about the different standardized tests. What test might be most helpful for me? She maxed out a couple of the subfields on the DORA last year, but not nearly all. I could do that one again if it's the best option. If there are different "best options" for the coming years, I'd like to know about those, too. My state does not require testing and so no one around here seems to do it. Therefore, I would need testing options that I can administer myself or have her do online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 The DORA isn't really worth much in my opinion. I guess it's fine if you have zero idea where your kid is on a reading scale, but I found achievement testing to be much more accurate and useful as far as that's concerned. (Especially for a very young student.) It's more expensive to do achievement testing but for us, it was the right answer. I didn't feel like making DS do a fill the bubble test at 5. Only now at age 9 am I starting to consider it, but YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted December 12, 2015 Author Share Posted December 12, 2015 (edited) What achievement test would you recommend? If I do something like the ITBS would I get more helpful information by testing her with her actual grade level test or the test for the grade I approximate she is most working at? If the DORA is accurate, then the biggest thing I learned from it is that I'm very bad at estimating my daughter's abilities as compared to other kids. I was many grade levels off when I compared my estimates to actual results. I found the results helpful and my daughter thought testing was great fun. Edited December 12, 2015 by Jackie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 If you can find someone to do a WRAT or PIAT, those are individual, adaptive tests and would give you the most information. Otherwise, you could have her do the SCAT through Johns Hopkins (which is kind of an odd test) or wait until she's a little older and take the EXPLORE, which is normed as an out of level test down to 3rd grade (my DD took it as a young 8 yr old). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I would skip the SCAT. It didn't give any useful info if your child just hit the ceiling anyway. EKS recommended the ITBS if I didn't remember wrongly. You can take a higher level ITBS and get it norm for her age peers as well as the grade level test she took. So two norms for a test. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clementine Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I liked the comprehensiveness of the Iowa Basic test. I used it from 1st-7th grade & liked being able to track the progress in every section through the years. We ordered ours through BJUP. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted December 12, 2015 Author Share Posted December 12, 2015 I would skip the SCAT. It didn't give any useful info if your child just hit the ceiling anyway. EKS recommended the ITBS if I didn't remember wrongly. You can take a higher level ITBS and get it norm for her age peers as well as the grade level test she took. So two norms for a test. Am I understanding this right? I could give her, for example, the third grade ITBS and get two score reports? One would give percentiles as compared to third graders and one would give percentiles as compared to six year olds/kindergarteners? That might be worthwhile information. When she's older, I'll definitely look into the EXPLORE, which I think is also used as a qualifying test for some programs? (She's already asking for online classes, but I don't think she's nearly ready yet. Her dad teaches online classes and she was thrilled to learn there are ones for kids!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Am I understanding this right? I could give her, for example, the third grade ITBS and get two score reports? One would give percentiles as compared to third graders and one would give percentiles as compared to six year olds/kindergarteners? That might be worthwhile information. Yes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 We did the WJ-III. It's not a scantron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4KookieKids Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 If you can find someone to do a WRAT or PIAT, those are individual, adaptive tests and would give you the most information. Otherwise, you could have her do the SCAT through Johns Hopkins (which is kind of an odd test) or wait until she's a little older and take the EXPLORE, which is normed as an out of level test down to 3rd grade (my DD took it as a young 8 yr old). Dumb question- how do you find someone to administer the wrat or piat? How much do they usually run? And is there any idea yet how this act aspire test compares to the explore? The website says it's what they're using to replace the explore, but will it be used to qualify for things like explore was? I would skip the SCAT. It didn't give any useful info if your child just hit the ceiling anyway. EKS recommended the ITBS if I didn't remember wrongly. You can take a higher level ITBS and get it norm for her age peers as well as the grade level test she took. So two norms for a test. How do you go about requesting both norms? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted July 30, 2016 Share Posted July 30, 2016 How do you go about requesting both norms? Contact the test provider before or when ordering. http://www.setontesting.com/iowa-tests/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted July 30, 2016 Author Share Posted July 30, 2016 How do you go about requesting both norms? Triangle Education Assessments (http://www.triangleeducationassessments.com/main/) told me to request the test I wanted with the machine scoring option, then add in the comments field of the order that I also wanted the test hand scored using norms for X level. They would charge the cost of the test with machine scoring plus the hand scoring fee. I decided I only wanted one set of scores for my purposes, so I can't say how it works, but the company was responsive and easy to deal with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.